Space Gem
| Model = Unique | Version = | Universe = | LeadDesigner = | AdditionalDesigners = | PlaceOfCreation = | PlaceOfDestruction = | Origin = Part of the Infinity Gems | Dimensions = | Weight = | First = Avengers Annual Vol 1 7 | HistoryText = One of six Infinity Gems that grant its user control over reality. According to the most commonly accepted origin story the six gems were once part of an all-powerful being who committed suicide out of loneliness. Its power survived and manifested as six gems. Soul Gems For a long time, knowledge of the true nature of the Gems was unknown and the six were known collectively as "Soul Gems", with much of their powers unrealized by their users. The ones that would eventually be identified as the Space Gem and the Reality Gem were being held on a prison satellite and by a powerful entity known as Xiambor when Thanos was in the process of collecting them for his own purposes, but it's unclear which was which. Thanos combined those Gems with three others and siphoned energies from the sixth to create a giant synthetic Gem with the intent of destroying the stars of the universe with its absolute power. The combined efforts of Warlock, Captain Marvel, and the Avengers thwarted Thanos' plan and destroyed the combined Gem. For a time, the five combined Gems were thought to be destroyed, but a conclave of the Elders of the Universe eventually learned that they could not be truly destroyed in such a manner and that they were actually scattered across the universe. Having a plan to use the Gems to further their ambitions, the Elders set out to gather them together again. Of these, only the Mind Gem's circumstances were specified, having come into possession of the Kree. The Champion won one of the other Gems as the World Trophy of Grinx, the Collector collected one, and the Trader purchased the other two. It's unclear which of these was the Space Gem at the time. The Elders eventually succeeded in gathering all six Gems together and connected them into a space platform aligned with a star system with six desolate planets the Gems could resonate with, setting up a trap for Galactus. Their apparatus would steal planetary energies from Galactus, channeling them into the planets, thus killing Galactus and subsequently Eternity due to the loss of balance that Galactus maintained. The universe would end and be reborn, with only the Elders surviving due to their earlier victory over Death and as such be true Elders of the new universe as Galactus had been in theirs. Though the Elders successfully trapped Galactus, they failed to handle interference from his heralds. While the Silver Surfer blocked the ray from the Gem apparatus, Nova detonated the star at the center of the system, creating a black hole that consumed the Gems and some of the Elders, saving Galactus. The Elders joined with the In-Betweener in a further scheme to kill Galactus, retrieving the Gems from the black hole, but they were thwarted again by the Silver Surfer. Lord Chaos and Master Order became involved and redistributed the Gems among the In-Betweener and the Elders afterwards, with the one that would soon be revealed as the Space Gem entrusted to the Runner. Infinity Gauntlet Thanos learned of the Gems' true nature as Infinity Gems from the Infinity Well and set out to gather them once more in a quest to become a god worthy of being Death's consort. He was halfway through his mission when he was attacked by the Runner, as the Elders were by then aware of his moves. The Runner had been subconsciously tapping into the Space Gem's abilities to teleport to his every destination, a feat he interpreted as "running" at the speed of thought. At speeds faster than Thanos could react to, Runner quickly tore through the throne Thanos had been using to travel through space, but made the mistake of stopping to give the stranded Titan a chance to explain his ploy for the Gems. This gave Thanos the opportunity to trap Runner in the power of the Time Gem, aging him into a slow old man, and then de-aging him into a helpless infant. With the Space Gem claimed, Thanos was able to teleport wherever he wanted, eliminating the need for his space throne. When Thanos assembled all six Gems into his Infinity Gauntlet, he had the power and knowledge to achieve anything he desired, except he found he still didn't know what it would take for Death to return his affection. He attempted various grand gestures, eventually creating a great shrine to Death and fulfilling his promise to her to kill half the population of the universe, removing them from existence with a snap of his fingers. No matter what he did, Death continued to regard him with silent disdain. He became increasingly unstable in his frustration and when a coalition of surviving heroes came to confront him, he was compelled to attempt to entertain Death by limiting his own abilities and giving his enemies a minute chance of victory. He swore off the use of all the Gems except Power in the ensuing battle, though he defeated many of his opponents through manipulations of time, space, and reality regardless. In particular, he opened a portal in the flight path of Thor's hammer, separating the weapon from its master for more than sixty seconds. After his inevitable victory, Thanos reclaimed full control of the Gems just in time to face an alliance of Cosmic Beings. When Death stood with the other Abstracts against him, Thanos lost his last vestige of patience and subdued them all, imprisoning them in an energy field. Upon defeating Eternity, he took their place as an abstract being one with the universe. This meant abadoning his physical body, which was still wearing the Gauntlet. Nebula, who up to that point was a helpless bystander being tortured by her grandfather for his amusement, seized the opportunity and stole the Gauntlet. She quickly used the Gauntlet to reset the timeline by 24 hours, moreso to spite Thanos' accomplishments than to set things right. She lacked the experience or understanding to make full effective use of the Gems, so Adam Warlock, who had formed more of a connection to the Gems through his time within the Soul Gem, was able to hide from her and eventually separate her from the Gauntlet to claim it for himself. Pledging to be a more worthy supreme being, Warlock ended the conflict and sent everyone on their way. Infinity Watch Warlock did not hold the Infinity Gauntlet for long before Eternity brought his case to the Living Tribunal that the young god was no more suited to hold omnipotence than Thanos. The Tribunal ruled that Warlock disperse the Gems so that no individual could misuse their combined might. Warlock decided to split the Gems among friends and allies he knew would not or could not abuse their potential. He offered the Space Gem to Pip the Troll, reasoning that the simple-minded rascal would only be able to make use of its basic teleportation abilities and would be too slippery to let it fall into the hands of anyone more dangerous. Illuminati When the Illuminati attempted to use the Infinity Gauntlet to push away another universe that was colliding with Earth-616, the Space Gem shattered. Infinity Quest Following the destruction of the entire Multiverse and its eventual restoration, the destroyed Infinity Gems were recreated and scattered across the universe. The Space Gem (now colored blue) appeared mysteriously in a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage facility, with a failed attempt from Loki's part to retrieve it resulting in the gem ending up in the hands of Wolverine. Properties The space gem allows its user to manipulate space anyway one sees fit. Its most basic powers allow one to teleport themselves and others any place they can picture in their mind regardless of distance or preventive measures such as walls or spells. It can increase the speed of the user. Its more powerful abilities allow one to appear in multiple places at once or altering the distance between objects contrary to the laws of physics. At its peak when used in conjunction with the other gems it allows its user to be at all places in the universe at once simultaneously. Alternate Realities Marvel Cinematic Universe (Earth-199999) After being separated from the other Infinity Stones, the Space Gem became in possession of the Asgardian leader Odin, and it was reshaped into a cube, which would be known as the Tesseract. It possesses the potential to create infinite energy, which can be used to create wormholes to other parts of the universe and different dimensions. For unknown reasons the Tesseract was hidden on Earth. During World War II it was found by Red Skull and Hydra as part of their plan for world domination. Hydra's lead scientist Arnim Zola managed to harness the energy of the Tesseract to power weapons to be used against the Allies. Captain America foiled Schmidt's plan to use the Tesseract to launch an aerial attack on the United States in a highly advanced plane by damaging the conduits transferring the Cube's power to the ship. In a desperate attempt to use the Tesseract for himself, Red Skull is apparently disintegrated after the Cube briefly opened a portal to another dimension. Captain America managed to crash Schmidt's plane (seemingly) at the cost of his own life. The cube is recovered by Howard Stark while seeking out the fallen Steve Rogers. Years after being in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody for investigation, Nick Fury asked Dr. Erik Selvig to examine the Tesseract, to potentially harness the energy. Some time later, the Tesseract started "misbehaving," before it opened a portal that brought Loki to Earth. Loki had made a deal with an alien race known as the Chitauri, he would give their master the Tesseract in exchange of an army with which he could conquer the Earth. The Chitauri's representative, only known as the Other stated their intention to use the Tesseract to access "greater worlds". Loki allowed himself to be defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newly formed team of superheroes called the Avengers, so he could distract them in order to give his allies the time necessary to build a machine which could concentrate more energy of the Tesseract in order to open a bigger and more stable portal to let the Chitauri invade Earth. Loki escaped from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and arrived to Stark Tower, where not only could he activate the cube, but be seen defeating the Avengers completely as his great triumph over Earth. The Avengers managed to defeat Loki and his invading forces, nuking almost the whole Chitauri army before closing the portal, when the machine was deactivated. In the aftermath, Avengers member Thor used the Tesseract to return it, himself and Loki back to where they belonged, Asgard. 2010s Marvel Animated Universe (Earth-12041) In this universe, the Red Skull stole the Infinity Stones (as they are called, instead of "Infinity Gems") from his master Thanos and returned to Earth. He had his ship heavily damaged, which caused the Stones to be scattered all over the Earth. The Space Stone was able to travel to other dimensions, and it fell into possession of Loki. He devised a ruse to make Thor go back to Asgard, as the opening of a portal between realms was the condition he needed to use the Stone's power to merge the Nine Realms together and escape Valhalla. When Thor confronted Loki, he used the Space Stone to open portals in order to evade Mjolnir's blows, but in the end, Thor managed to manipulate Mjolnir's movements and finally hit Loki, knocking him down, and taking the Space Stone from him. The Stone was contained with the other three that had been retrieved by the Avengers, under special care by Tony Stark. However, the Black Widow noticed that Tony was slowly being corrupted by the Stones. She sneaked into the vault and stole them, with the intention to send them to Asgard with Thor's help for safekeeping. Their plan failed, and they resorted to Doctor Strange so he could bury them between realities. However, Dormammu appeared shortly after to take the gems. Black Widow was forced to wield the Stones in order to vanish him back to his dimension. After initially falling into the Stones' influence, Natasha was capable of resisting their control and reject them. However, as soon as she stripped of the Stones, Thanos returned, and assembled the Infinity Gauntlet with the Power Stone that was already in his possession. Using the Gauntlet, Thanos created a citadel near Earth's orbit, and started modifying Earth's climate, causing anomalies around the globe. In order to defeat him, the Avengers got Thanos to fight them with each individual Stone. Using the Space Stone, he attacked each Avenger by teleporting immediately after striking. Even though Hawkeye and Black Widow found the pattern of his attacks in order to avoid them, Thanos subsequently switched to another Stone. After getting the readings of each individual Stone, Iron Man activated Arsenal, who seized the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos. When the Avengers returned to Earth, it was revealed a backdoor left in the robot's programming allowed Ultron to possess him. Arsenal was re-shaped into Ultron, and the evil A.I. revealed itself. The five Stones were drained of their power by Ultron. | CurrentOwner = Earth-616: Wolverine; Earth-199999: Loki (posing as Odin) | PreviousOwners = Earth-616: Iron Man, The Hood, Black Bolt, Runner, Thanos, Nebula, Adam Warlock, Pip the Troll; Earth-199999: Odin, S.H.I.E.L.D., Red Skull; Earth-12041: Ultron, Arsenal, Thanos, Tony Stark, Loki, Red Skull | Notes = | Trivia = | Links = }} Category:Infinity Gems Category:Items Category:Unique Items Category:Teleporters Category:Power Bestowal Category:Warp Speed Category:Earth-12041 Category:Earth-616 Category:Earth-199999 Category:Telekinesis Category:Wormholes Category:Thanos' Equipment